Google today announced some new Chromebooks from partners Haier and Hisense that become some of the most affordable options yet at $149.

It also gave a first look at new types of Chrome OS devices arriving soon from Asus, including a sub $100 thumb drive-like Chrome OS computer called Chromebit and the first fully convertible Chromebook called Chromebook Flip. Read more

According to several users on the Chromecast Subreddit, and corroborated by TechCrunch, you can now play and pause video content on the Chromecast with your TV remote. This feature makes it significantly easier to control your content without having to use your smartphone for everything.

Google released Chrome 42 this week through its beta channel for Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS. The latest Chrome beta previews a couple of interesting features that make web apps more like native apps including push notifications and saving web apps to your Android home screen faster… Read more

The store, to be called The Google shop, will sell the company’s range of Android phones and tablets, Chromebook laptops, and Chromecast TV services. The shop will hold tutorials showing consumers how to use the devices and hold demonstrations showing off key Google apps. It is the first time that Google has opened a shop under its own name.

The Google Shop is store-within-a-store in a flagship branch of Currys PC World, a large electronics retail chain on Tottenham Court Road. The road is gadget central in London, almost every other store on the street selling consumer electronics … Read more

Cryptographers have discovered that a security flaw dating back to the ’90s is placing Android, iOS and Mac users at risk from hacking attacks when visiting some major websites, including American Express, Airtel, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Groupon, Marriott and many more.

The FREAK exploit allows an attacker to force a website to use lower-grade encryption for HTTPS connections, which can be cracked within a few hours when using a small botnet of just 75 computers. Once cracked, attackers would be able to hack the website as well as steal personal data from those visiting the site … Read more

We’ve seen evidence recently that Google has a second-generation Pixel Chromebook, but the Mountain View company has finally (seemingly accidentally) confirmed that the machine is on its way.

Earlier this evening Google published a video on YouTube in which Renee Niemi announced that a limited number of Pixel 2 notebooks will be available in the coming soon. No specific timeframe was given for the release, but Niemi said that because the Pixel 2 is primarily meant as a development platform, only a few would be made.

Today Dell is launching the next generation of its education-aimed Chromebook 11, and the laptop comes with many improvements—durability and affordability were the focus with this device according to the company—that make it a worthy upgrade. The device packs an 11-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution screen (which is definitely nothing special), but there are a few things about this laptop that set it apart from the rest (and from its predecessor). Read more

According to a bug reported spotted in the Chromium project issue tracker, Google is currently working on a second-generation Chromebook Pixel. Noticed by OMG Chrome, a Google employee recently filed a bug report associated with the Samus development board, which at this point, is unreleased to the public. The original Chromebook Pixel was codenamed the Link within Google’s headquarters.

Google’s Chief Business Officer Omid Kordenstani gave several updates on the status of the company’s $35 Chromecast streaming device during the this evening’s Q4 2014 earnings call. Kordenstani first stated that users have “casted” content to their television more than one billion times. The company says that this is a huge milestone for the streaming stick and the implementation of the Cast functionality in a variety of different apps.

Both of the new Chromebooks are being touted as affordable options for the classroom with the C910 featuring a 15.6-display and the C740 offering a more compact design with an 11.6-inch display. Read more

Dr. Joseph “Joe” Cohen has been a pediatrician for 15 years, and he saw a need in the medical workplace. Current EMR (electronic medical record) solutions are ridiculously expensive, antiquated, offer little support for pediatrics, and require hours of rigorous training before doctors can use them to efficiently document and organize patient information. Seeing this, Dr. Joe (as his young patients call him) developed a pediatric solution of his own, and deployed an early version in his own practice, Cedar Park Pediatrics, with the added bonus of bringing down the average cost of processing patients from $58 to around $20 per visit.

And while the system is of course platform-agnostic for the most part, Google technologies like Chrome and Glass are a key players in the kiddoEMR product despite downfalls that Dr. Joe says make the current generation of the latter completely impractical for the workplace. The system of course will mostly be interacted with via an in-browser interface on a desktop computer, but Glass provides some robust functionality that would make it a no-brainer for pediatricians. Doctors like Joe, though, need to be able to use their hands, and the old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is especially true when diagnosing patients.